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Sunday, March 11, 2012

We decided that it would be a great idea to get the first big ride of the year in today. It wasn't a great idea, it was a terrible idea. We started out this morning around 7 am and headed west. Our route was simple, hwy 33 to hwy 73 north to Neilsville for lunch and then onward to Thorp. Thorp we were set with the simple task of fitting a seat to my nephews bike and then head home from there.

Heading west was terrible, we were dealing with a south 30 to 40 mph wind just battering us along with 35 degree temperatures and who knows what the wind chill was. About 30 miles into the trip we decided that we are going to go until we got onto hwy 73 north. If the wind was still beating us while heading north we were going to call it a day.

Once we got to 73 the wind was still whipping but the temp was coming up into the low 50's so we continued on. It wasn't bad except that 73 winds north and west, more north though.

We got to Neilsville around noon and met my friend Fred and family for lunch at A&W. After lunch we went over to the war memorial that Neilsville is known for. Here are some pictures from that.

While at the memorial I got a call from Kari and she notified me that her brother is flying in tonight at 8 pm from Japan and I need to pick him up. I knew I wasn't going to make it home in time but thought I would give it my best.

We headed out from the war memorial towards Thorp. Mother nature continued to beat us hard with the wind until we got just outside of Throp and it was like the wind was shut off. With that and the temps in the upper 60's it was turning out to be a great day of riding.

We met up with my nephews and fit the motorcycle seat, shot the shit for a while, and we were once again on our way around 3:30 pm. I couldn't convince either one of them to come along for the ride home.

Seat Delivery

We jumped on the freeway to shred some time off the ride home hoping that I could make it back in time to pick up Kari's brother. The sun was setting and I knew I was on the losing end of making it home in time to pick him up so I called Kari to let her know. It was disappointing on my end because I enjoy picking him up when he has been gone so long but at the same time this gave us the opportunity to get off the freeway and back on the back roads the way a ride should be. As we got closer to home the wind started picking up again. It was as if Mother Nature took a nap and when she awoke she saw we were still riding and thought we need a good ass kicking again.

13.5 hours and 474 miles later and we were home. Tired and beat but we made it.